The World at War (30th Anniversary Edition)

It was not long after my family moved into the very first home we had ever owned, in our line's history, that I recall watching, with my dad, a really good television show called The World At War, which recounted the history of the Second World War. The documentary series was produced between 1971 and 1974 by Jeremy Isaacs of Thames Television and featured many key interview subjects, from the common soldier in all the armies to major powerbrokers such as Lord Mountbatten, war correspondent and novelist Lawrence Durrell, Hitler's architect and Armaments Minister Albert Speer, who disingenuously tries to weasel out of his responsibility for the Nazi genocide, German Admiral Karl Dönitz, Averell Harriman, Alger Hiss, film star James Stewart, who served in the US Army 8th Airforce, and General Eisenhower's driver, Kay Summersby, and Adolf Hitler's secretary Traudl Junge. There are even segments with the last survivor of the assassination plot against Hitler, Ewald Heinrich Von Kleist. It is an amazing filmic and journalistic feat that was accomplished, for so many aspects of the war that are missing from other attempts at visually documenting it are here. Isaacs got many honors for the series, from a knighthood to the Royal Television Society's Desmond Davis Award, L'Ordre National du Mérit, and numerous Emmy Awards.
Watching this series, again on DVD, and thinking back on my dad's removed fascination with it, when originally aired, made me realize that those days with my dad are now farther removed from the present than the war years the series documents were from his watching of them. Yet, I know why he was so rapt by the series, despite its flaws, and the fact that a more thorough and unbiased video history of the war is just begging to be made. It's because the series wisely focused on the ordinary person, like him. This focus undoes almost all the biases the rest of the series promotes, and makes the whole DVD set an easy recommendation for history buffs, yet to be used as a starting point, not an end all and be all. This series was not just the tales of the giants: Hitler, Churchill, Stalin, Tojo, Roosevelt, Rommel, Mussolini, Eisenhower. It was tales of the ordinary man, and how his contributions changed the world.
Watching this series also nails the current lie that we are involved in some global struggle, a `clash of civilizations', on par with the World Wars, when we are really avaricious and unaccountable myopics absurdly trying to fend off some puny backwater terrorists. This series shows those claims for what they are- lies. Now is not a time of giants that will be studied in the future for their contributions in moving the world forward, but of small men with small agendas, which is a thing quite different, in the worst possible ways, from being ordinary men, like my dad was; ordinary men who helped change human history for the better, in The World At War.

A subtle and powerful presentation of history. Factually excellent the series introduction specifies the intent and methodology comprehensively, and I strongly recommend viewing this intro.
Interviews with actual senior participants presenting their view of events, reasoning for same is often powerful but mostly trite(the poor reasoning!) while always interesting - all sides represented and well balanced. The inserting of original footage is often spectacular (Leni Refinstahl in particular)
I found mysef constantly surprised by the basic stupidity, awesome incompetancy, political greed & the indominable capacity for humanity to survive.
Truely excellent! I am sure many film historians have learnt much from this series, Ken Burns amongst them, bravo!

Jeremy Isaacs did an extraordinarily thorough and exhaustive series with this piece of work. I am a WW2 documentary collector and I am up to, easily, over 150 DVD's, but this remains my favorite, even though mazaingly-enough, it was produced over 30 years ago. In order to truly appreciate this work, one must appreciate the thorough nature of the series itself: For example, we see living interviews with Manteuffel, Kaye Sommers (Ike's driver), Doenitz, Karl Wolff, Albert Speer, etc ... as well, the illstrated maps are easily to follow and eductaional in their explanation of movement .... the archival footage of troops, battlegrounds, Nazi Germany, Axis and Allied leaders, the before-after shots of France+Germany+England etc ..... the interviews with Jeremy Isaacs, Stephen Ambrose (Band of Brothers), plus shots of ALL the political eaders (Hitler, Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, etc) ..... Altogther, if you want a true and living history of WW2 and the WAY IT WAS ... you MUST have this documentary .... it may be a bit pricey, but that is becuase it is worth every penny and the fact it was created in 1974, yet still remain the quintessential collectors piece, speaks volumes in and of itself ... Hats off to you, Sir Jeremy!

Being for warned about the sound was fine and not a problem, I managed it by turning up the volume. A good concise video going over causes and political actions taken before and during the war. It touches the war from all viewpoints. I highly recommend adding this documentary to your video library.

The World At War is one of the best documentaries I have seen about World War II. I recommend anyone to watch it that is intersted in this war and Hitler's reign.